Commuters have deserted Metrorail

schumi

schumi

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It is depressing these days to take the train from Rondebosch to Cape Town. On Thursday last week, there was one other person on the platform.


We bought tickets at noon. The train departed over two hours later.
commuters-have-deserted-metrorail



At Cape Town station the platforms were deserted except for cleaners and some security guards. Billboard advertisements have vanished from the walls. The platform displays show only the time of day instead of information on where the next train is leaving from.


Staff at the information desk could tell us when the next train to Fish Hoek was leaving, but didn’t know from which platform. No one was bothering to staff the defaulters’ desk for people to pay ticket fines.


We found a few commuters hanging around Cape Town station. They complained that since Metrorail has stopped selling weekly or monthly tickets, buying daily tickets is costly. They also complained about the constant changing of platforms.


While we were there, the train to Fish Hoek changed from platform 5 to 6 and then back again to 5.


Our carriage on the 3pm train to Rondebosch had only about 15 people; three more boarded at Salt River.


“I used to pay R50 a week but now it has almost doubled, and the trains are never on time. When you get to the station, they tell you there are no trains or the train is delayed,” said a health worker at a Brooklyn facility.
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More at: https://www.groundup.org.za/article/commuters-have-deserted-metrorail/
 
Yep, our rail system is in a state of collapse.

Also why our roads are in a state as well, more and more freight being transported via trucks as the rail system dies.

Sums up the state of the country. Trains quite literally drove the industrial revolution and have continued to be at the heart of progress and industry, so we are essentially deindustrialising.
 
Kornhole said:
Why
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A colleague used to use trains.

Fewer and fewer trains, dismantling of the infrastructure for scrap, lack of safety. People turned away from it because it was no longer viable. I'm guessing now the rot is even with the people running it and now they just hobble along day-to-day. Sell a ticket here, hope a train arrives there.
 
dualmeister said:
www.capetownetc.com

Prasa set to spend R3 billion to restore Cape Town's central line

During a briefing on Tuesday, Prasa indicated that their primary objective was to re-establish Cape Town's central line, which is MetroRail's busiest line. The line has been inoperable since 2019 due to vandalism and theft.
www.capetownetc.com
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That's the cycle though. Run it into the ground by stealing as much as possible. Then announce plan to rejuvenate or improve service to X amount of ZAR, then the tenders come out and the cycle repeats.
 
Is the train system in other parts of the country also this dysfunctional? Are trains being burnt in other provinces also or is it only in and around Cape Town?
 
lunch said:
https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...gauteng-train-stations-left-in-ruins.1134637/
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The_Mowgs said:
Is the train system in other parts of the country also this dysfunctional? Are trains being burnt in other provinces also or is it only in and around Cape Town?
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Read the following, the pictures themselves really are worth a thousand words.

www.dailymaverick.co.za

Stripped bare: Looting till there is nothing left of Gauteng’s rail network

Many train commuters have no choice but to travel on more expensive modes of transport after extensive vandalism and pillaging of the rail infrastructure, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown. Daily Maverick visited stations around Gauteng and saw the devastation — and also witnessed...
www.dailymaverick.co.za www.dailymaverick.co.za
 
Solarion said:
Our rail system is the most important thing for this economy next to Eskom, and both have been mismanaged into the ground. I reported an imminent rail collapse in Amanzimtoti several years back. I sent numerous emails and photographs of the banks errosion to anyone who would listen including Sappi Saiccor, Prasa, local government and the newspapers. 8 months later it collapsed. The only line between North Coast forestry, Durban Harbour connecting to the lower South Coast in imminent danger and everyone just sat there.
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I predicted the downfall of Transnet in 1990 already, when the first round of voluntary retrenchments were announced - and nobody batted an eyelid, or tried to stop, their top-performing staff (the backbone of their business) from leaving.

Then you had the internal strife between Railfreight and Roadfreight where both were fighting each other for the same business.

The final nail in their coffin was the genius with an MBA (actually a few of them) that proposed that one business-unit (eg, PX) pays the other (Propnet) rental for the property(ies) they occupy! Then another genius suggested that they (Propnet) could rather lease the property to the private sector at a much higher rate that they were getting from other Transnet divisions!

Today, the largest single building in the Eastern Cape, the railways goods sheds (along the N2 as you enter Port Elizabeth) does not contain a single Transnet entity, In fact, the whole complex (which stretches for a few kilometres along that same N2) only contains a small portion of Transnet business (only the CX containers sub-division) and nothing else, bar the scrapyard for old, dilapidated, neglected, damaged and abused equipment, vehicles and rolling stock. :(
 
In 2019 our ANC supporting neighbourhood watch chairman asked me to go with him by train from Plumstead to Cape Town and return and write an article he wanted to have published in 6 of Cape Town’s smaller newspapers.

We got to the station at 9.15 to find the ticket office closed. A train arrived 15 mins later. The doors did not close during the trip. About 1/3 of the lights worked. All the windows were damaged. The seats were knifed up. There was human sh*t on the one seat. It stank

The train stopped at each station except for Rosebank, it went through at speed. We were doing well, only 15 mins of a 25 min trip. About 200m out of Woodstock station it stopped. We waited 40 mins before it started up so it arrived in CT 45 mins late

We walked around in the city for an hour and went for the 11.10 train back to Plumstead. This left at 12.35. All went well until we got to Kenilworth. There it stopped for 50 mins. In the coach were people running up and down selling peanuts, phone accessories and drugs. Not a cop in sight

I wrote an honest 8 paragraph report. He would not allow it to be published in case “someone got the wrong impression”
 
Supervan II said:
I predicted the downfall of Transnet in 1990 already, when the first round of voluntary retrenchments were announced - and nobody batted an eyelid, or tried to stop, their top-performing staff (the backbone of their business) from leaving.

Then you had the internal strife between Railfreight and Roadfreight where both were fighting each other for the same business.

The final nail in their coffin was the genius with an MBA (actually a few of them) that proposed that one business-unit (eg, PX) pays the other (Propnet) rental for the property(ies) they occupy! Then another genius suggested that they (Propnet) could rather lease the property to the private sector at a much higher rate that they were getting from other Transnet divisions!

Today, the largest single building in the Eastern Cape, the railways goods sheds (along the N2 as you enter Port Elizabeth) does not contain a single Transnet entity, In fact, the whole complex (which stretches for a few kilometres along that same N2) only contains a small portion of Transnet business (only the CX containers sub-division) and nothing else, bar the scrapyard for old, dilapidated, neglected, damaged and abused equipment, vehicles and rolling stock. :(
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All the ills of today under ANC rule were predicted around 1990 but nobody would listen. Even the deterioration of the Johannesburg CBD from a smaller New York's Time Square into Lagos Nigeria was predicted.

And anyone like me saying, "I told you so" is now accused of longing for apartheid.
 
chrisc said:
In 2019 our ANC supporting neighbourhood watch chairman asked me to go with him by train from Plumstead to Cape Town and return and write an article he wanted to have published in 6 of Cape Town’s smaller newspapers.

We got to the station at 9.15 to find the ticket office closed. A train arrived 15 mins later. The doors did not close during the trip. About 1/3 of the lights worked. All the windows were damaged. The seats were knifed up. There was human sh*t on the one seat. It stank

The train stopped at each station except for Rosebank, it went through at speed. We were doing well, only 15 mins of a 25 min trip. About 200m out of Woodstock station it stopped. We waited 40 mins before it started up so it arrived in CT 45 mins late

We walked around in the city for an hour and went for the 11.10 train back to Plumstead. This left at 12.35. All went well until we got to Kenilworth. There it stopped for 50 mins. In the coach were people running up and down selling peanuts, phone accessories and drugs. Not a cop in sight

I wrote an honest 8 paragraph report. He would not allow it to be published in case “someone got the wrong impression”
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And I used to use that line in the late 70's early 80's to get into the CBD for a night out on Friday and Saturday with the last train home at midnight. Completely safe, usually on time with announcements and apologies for any delays. Busses at stations when there was a problem.

What happened ANC?
 
chrisc said:
In 2019 our ANC supporting neighbourhood watch chairman asked me to go with him by train from Plumstead to Cape Town and return and write an article he wanted to have published in 6 of Cape Town’s smaller newspapers.
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In the late 70's it wasn't even necessary to have a car on the Peninsula, so regular, smart and convenient the train service - especially so for National Servicemen who had no transport of their own.

There were plenty of shopping centres, pubs, hotels, restaurants and other activities almost on top of the stations, and all within easy walking distance (yes, even when pissed!).

We used to attend movies/shows/concerts at the 3-Arts Theatre (we got discounted tickets), party all night at Pig 'n Whistle/Forester's Arms/et al, have drinks at The Coachman (or Stagecoach, I can't remember the pub at the Protea Hotel in Rondebosch), grab lunch at the Wimpy before going to the movies (Claremont) and my then girlfriend and I even regularly visited her folks in Plumstead - all by train!
 
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